For four days Dublin will ring with the sound of contemporary music in a superb programme including three performances of Ed Bennett plus Fidelio Trio performances of Joe Cutler and Rob Fokkens.

Crash Ensemble who are this year celebrating their 20th anniversary will open the festival with a performance of Ed Bennett’s Accel on the steps of the National Concert Hall. Films of them playing works by Bennett and others are being projected throughout the city. Concorde will premiere Bennett’s Strange Twist (commissioned by New Music Dublin) in a family-friendly lunchtime concert of new works.

Thursday 1 March, Front Steps National Concert Hall

Crash on the Steps

Join us for our opening fanfare at sunset in the great outdoors! Crash Ensemble presents a brand new composition from the award-winning Grainne Mulvey, music from Ed Bennett’s Acceland Terry Riley’s Loops For Ancient-Giant-Nude-Hairy Warriors Racing Down The Slopes Of Battle. The performance will be live and amplified on the steps of the National Concert Hall, free for all.

Join Concorde, the first (and longest-lasting) contemporary music ensemble to be established in Ireland, for a lunchtime rendition of family-friendly new music. Adventurous, inventive and always surprising, the performance will feature new works from five composers: Judith Ring (…within an egg of space…), Deirdre McKay (buttons, breath, bow), Jane O’Leary (Winter Sketchbook I & III), Garth Knox (Wild Animals) and a new commission Strange Twist from Ed Bennett.

Take to the streets of Dublin prior to and during New Music Dublin to experience Crashlands – a groundbreaking music and film project to mark Crash Ensemble’s 20th anniversary. Films will be projected in and around public buildings across the city. Smartphones may be required for some locations.

To mark their 20th anniversary at the cutting edge of contemporary classical music, Crash Ensemble recently announced CrashLands – a ground breaking new music and film project. This ambitious collaboration commissioned and showcased new work from 20 Irish and international composers with a series of filmed live performances set in unusual locations scattered across Ireland. During NMD 2018 you can see and hear the work of composers Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe, David Lang, Nico Muhly, Peter Adriaansz, Tansy Davies, Kate Moore, Paul Lansky, Donnacha Dennehy, Gerald Barry, Roger Doyle, Andrew Hamilton, Sean Clancy, Jennifer Walsh, Amanda Feery, Ann Cleare, Kevin Volans, Linda Buckley and Ed Bennett in a series of films shot in concert by filmmaker Brendan Canty (best known for the Hozier video ‘Take Me To Church’) with bi-lingual poet Doireann Ní Ghríofa. The locations for the showing of these films across Dublin will be revealed closer to the festival via our New Music Dublin newsletter and social media. Sign up or follow for details!